Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to address U.K. Parliament via video

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He has called on the West to do more to halt Russia’s invasion of his country by imposing tougher sanctions, including against the Russian energy sector. He has also urged nations to send more defense assistance, including jets that his military pilots can fly, and called for NATO enforcement of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an escalation that Western leaders have resisted.

“It’s been 13 days we’ve been hearing promises, 13 days we’ve been told we’ll be helped in the air, that there will be planes, that they will be delivered to us,” Zelensky said Tuesday in a video posted on Telegram. “But the responsibility for that rests also on those who were not capable to take a decision in the West for 13 days ... on those who have not secured the Ukrainian skies from the Russian assassins.”

The United Kingdom has pledged military support and humanitarian aid to Ukraine but rejected requests to impose a no-fly zone, saying it would escalate the conflict with Russia. When a Ukrainian activist pleaded with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on March 1 to support a no-fly zone, the British leader said: “Unfortunately the implication of that is that the U.K. would be engaged in shooting down Russian planes, engaged in direct combat with Russia. That’s not something we can do.”

British lawmakers wearing headsets to hear an interpreter will be able to watch Tuesday’s address, which starts at 5 p.m. local time, on big screens that are being installed.

Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, said the speech would be “historic” and that “every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House.”

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Zelensky addressed U.S. lawmakers on Saturday and made a direct appeal for additional military aid, including by helping him secure more Soviet-era fighter jets to counter Russian air raids.

During the call over Zoom attended by more than 280 members of the Senate and House, Zelensky described “the urgent need” for more military support and humanitarian aid, as well as for a worldwide ban on the purchase of Russian oil, according to statements and people on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

In a speech this month to the European Parliament, Zelensky described how Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was being pummeled. The English-language interpreter for the president briefly choked up during the remarks.

Last week, Zelensky thanked Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, for “courageously opposing Russia’s invasion” after the couple made a rare foray into politics by tweeting that they “stand with the President and all of Ukraine’s people as they bravely fight.”

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not going as planned and that Russia’s military is taking heavy casualties.

“It’s not going particularly well for the Russians,” Wallace told Britain’s Sky News. “It’s day 13, way off their timetable.”

“Probably the biggest single casualty so far are Russian military soldiers,” he added, “who have been let down by appalling leadership and appalling plans.”

Wallace also said a 40-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles headed from the north on a route toward Kyiv is “still stuck” outside Ukraine’s capital. American officials attribute the apparent stall in part to logistical failures on the Russian side. They have also credited Ukrainian efforts to attack parts of the convoy with contributing to its slowdown. But they warn that the Russians could regroup at any moment and press forward.

“We can see that the Russians are having real logistic problems, so that affects morale; they’re not getting through, they’re getting more desperate,” Wallace added. “Russia has built itself a trap.”

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Wallace also said that Britain is “increasing our support of both lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine,” and that it would offer military support to neighboring Poland, a fellow NATO member, if London decided to provide Ukraine with fighter jets.

“I would support the Poles and whatever choice they make,” Wallace said, but he noted that Britain could not offer aircraft that the Ukrainians would be able to use. “Poland will understand that the choices they make will not only directly help Ukraine, which is a good thing, but also may bring them into direct line of fire from countries such as Russia or Belarus.”

Wallace said he expected Zelensky’s speech Tuesday to be “incredibly powerful” and called Ukraine’s president an “amazing guy.”

Johnson’s government has faced criticism for approving only 300 visas for Ukrainian refugees, as other European leaders agree to temporarily waive restrictions to allow easier entry.